Corrections officers to Whitmer: Mobilize National Guard to address prison staffing crisis

LANSING — The union representing Michigan corrections officers is calling on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to mobilize the National Guard to help staff Michigan prisons they say are chronically understaffed and unsafe.

"I am formally requesting that you activate the Michigan National Guard to provide immediate custody support to prisons in dire need of it while we work directly with you to find realistic, permanent relief measures," Michigan Corrections Organization President Byron Osborn said in a Wednesday letter to Whitmer.

"Under your watch, state corrections officers continue to suffer unlike any other state employees ever have in the history of Michigan," Osborn said. "They are still being forced to work exhausting, demoralizing numbers of mandatory 16-hour overtime shifts per week. They are not being allowed to have a normal, healthy life with their families. None of your other state employees are being subjected to these conditions."

A Whitmer spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the department put out a statement that said it has taken a series of steps to address the staffing shortage and "the solution is not a temporary measure such as bringing in National Guard members who have not been trained to operate in this environment."

Osborn, who has complained about understaffing and excess forced overtime for years, said half the state prisons have officer vacancy rates of 20% or higher, and five are operating at officer vacancy rates above 30%.

The final $2.1-billion Corrections Department budget for 2025, approved by the Legislature early Thursday morning, did not include language directing the MDOC to spend $12 million in unspent funds from the prior budget to pay for $1,500 signing bonuses and retention bonuses for corrections officers, as was recommended in the earlier version of the budget approved by the state House. The state used federal money to pay for $12 million in signing and retention bonuses this fiscal year. Also deleted from the final budget, though it was included earlier in both the House and Senate versions, was $16.5 million to allow certain corrections officers to join the state police hybrid pension plan — a move Osborn said would have significantly helped officer retention.

Now, "people are resigning in droves," Osborn told the Free Press Wednesday.

"It's just a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt or killed."

Members of the Michigan National Guard helped give vaccinations inside the prisons near the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but have never been called on to assist with regular prison staffing, even during or after the 1981 rioting at prisons in Jackson, Ionia, and Marquette that injured about 100 prisoners and officers and destroyed or damaged about 30 prison buildings.

If approved to work in the prisons, members of the National Guard would not carry their rifles or other guns, Osborn said. Michigan corrections officers are not normally armed, though they have access to weapons, when needed.

Michigan houses about 33,000 prisoners in 26 state prisons. It has about 5,500 corrections officers for required staffing 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In 2022, Osborn described Michigan prisons as "time bombs" because of chronic staffing shortages , overworked and exhausted corrections officers, and frustrated inmates. At that time, he told the Free Press he was considering asking Whitmer to activate the Michigan National Guard to assist with staffing, though he ultimately did not do so.

"This would be unprecedented," he said Wednesday.

At the time, Osborn said the department was about 1,000 officers short and losing about 1,000 officers a year to retirement and other departures, meaning plans in the 2023 budget to hire 800 new officers, even if achieved, would result in a staffing situation that continued to worsen.

The unsigned statement issued by the department said wage increases are among the measures approved in recent years to address the staffing shortage. Half the prisons are operating with officer vacancies below 15% and eight prisons have a vacancy rate of 5% or lower, the department said.

"The Department and other stakeholders need to remain focused on efforts that can stabilize staffing in the long-term, including promoting the benefits of a career in corrections," the MDOC statement said. "These include having an active role in keeping their communities safe, serving in a role that can change lives, and the ability to reach annual maximum pay of $68,500 after just 3 and a half years of service."

Osborn said in the letter to Whitmer that there is a significant gang problem in the prisons and violent incidents are worsening due to policy changes that have resulted in reduced use of solitary confinement.

"The conditions I’ve described to you are real," Osborn said in the letter. "If you are skeptical and wish to see for yourself, I’ll gladly escort you inside several of your prisons so you can speak directly with your corrections officers, not the administration, about the conditions."

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Corrections officers to Whitmer: Mobilize National Guard to address prison staffing crisis